Month: December 2020

A large-scale vaccination campaign began in Moscow on Saturday, with thousands signing up for shots online. Frontline workers were given priority.

People have to sign up online before receiving the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine at one of the city’s 70 clinics. The vaccine consists of two separate injections, the second dose must be administered 21 days after the first one. The whole procedure, which includes the time needed to cool down the drug after it’s removed from the freezer, takes less than an hour, officials said.

https://www.rt.com/russia/508790-moscow-starts-mass-vaccination/

Earlier this week, the UK became the first Western country to approve the BioNtech/Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.

Sputnik comes live from Birmingham, UK, where coronavirus sceptics have gathered for the first major demonstration since the country has approved the COVID-19 vaccine.

The protesters have taken to the streets to voice their disapproval of coronavirus measures recently introduced by the UK Government. 

https://sputniknews.com/uk/202012051081368144-demonstrators-rally-in-birmingham-against-covid-restrictions-in-wake-of-vaccine-approval-in-uk/

On orders from President Donald Trump, most of the 700 or so US troops currently in Somalia will either withdraw entirely or be moved to nearby countries by early 2021, the US defense department has confirmed in a statement.

“The President of the United States has ordered the Department of Defense and the United States Africa Command to reposition the majority of personnel and assets out of Somalia by early 2021,” the Pentagon said on Friday, after the Wall Street Journal broke the news.

NEWS: President Trump ordered the Pentagon to pull nearly all U.S. troops out of Somalia, two U.S. officials said. https://t.co/vbFNbLxhGG

— Ben Pershing (@benpershing) December 4, 2020

The US government will not offer ByteDance a further extension to complete the divestment of the US assets of its popular video sharing service TikTok, which was ordered by President Donald Trump in August, Reuters sources said.

The Chinese company is in talks with Walmart and Oracle on a deal, which would transfer ownership of its US operation to a new entity to comply with the Trump executive order. The US administration labeled TikTok a national security threat, claiming that it exposes personal data of American users to the Chinese government.

https://www.rt.com/usa/508756-tiktok-divestment-no-extension/

The quake occurred at a depth of more than 90 km at 15:44 local time, seismologists say. 

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Turkey’s province of Antalya, the Kandili Observatory said. 

Earlier, it said the quake was measured at 5.4 on the Richter scale.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202012051081369390-55-magnitude-quake-hits-turkeys-mediterranean-coast-kandilli-observatory-says/

mid Washington’s continuing anti-Beijing rhetoric and fresh sanctions targeting various Chinese activities, the Asian giant was slammed as allegedly posing the “greatest national security threat” to the US by current Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe.

The US State Department announced on 4 November that it was curtailing five cultural exchange programmes with China, slamming them as “soft power propaganda tools.”

The Department said on its website it had “terminated” the Policymakers Educational China Trip Program, the US-China Friendship Program, the US-China Leadership Exchange Program, the US-China Transpacific Exchange Program and the Hong Kong Educational and Cultural Program.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202012051081367684-us-pulls-the-plug-on-exchange-programmes-with-china-slamming-them-as-soft-propaganda-tools/

An outrageous statement by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas regarding the negotiation of a new nuclear deal with Tehran has been met with a devastating response from his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.

In an interview with Spiegel magazine on Friday, Maas spoke of what he called a “nuclear deal plus” with Iran, saying the accord would also cover the country’s conventional missile program and regional role.

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/05/640048/EU-arms-sales-massive-destruction

US President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to withdraw nearly all of the hundreds of American troops deployed to Somalia, which is part of a global pullback by the outgoing president that will also see him drawdown forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Trump “has ordered the Department of Defense and the United States Africa Command to reposition the majority of personnel and assets out of Somalia by early 2021,” the Department of Defense (DOD) said in a statement issued on Friday.

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/04/640010/Trump-orders-Pentagon-to-pull-nearly-all-troops-from-Somalia